I'm a meat hunter that does not hunt much (couple days per season). I hate antler restrictions. I pay the money for my tag, I should be able to fill it with what I want to take home for the freezer.
Check the charts for flow rates and turbidity that are on the USGS site over looking at the river in Mt Morris. There are a lot of creeks that can mud her up between Rochester and Mt Morris.
Early in the season, lakers are spread out over more depths than in summer. Shoals and structure will hold more fish in the spring. Slower speeds under 2.0 produce more and bigger fish when fishing cowbells and spin n glows or peanuts. I run Hammerhead cowbells in 5/0. Give Jim a call and he will hook you up with the right stuff.
I find running my one copper a side is perfect along side four divers (2 per side). I find two coppers on one board hinders your ability to turn. By the time to turn around to go back through a weighpoint, the day is over.
My only beef is clipping adds stress to the fish. Talking to the guy from the dec that delivered the fish to the pens last spring he told me the fish were stressed and did not eat for days after being clipped.
Steelhead normally have a diverse diet (bug, emeralds, shad, alewives,ect). TONS of alewives were high in the water column all summer this year. Did the steelhead eat more alewives than normal because they were readily available?